Click here to go to the Second Wind Website

After a pretty rough school year, I was looking forward to getting some things done around the house. During the school year, I had to learn a new subject area, Social Studies. As much as history does not change, I … Continue reading →

When I wake up and start my day and everything just follows along in a neutral way and nothing out of the ordinary happens, it just becomes another day, for which I’m grateful. If something doesn’t go well for enough … Continue reading →

This past week, I made a hard, terrible, but necessary mistake. I sold my Harley Davidson motorcycle. For the first time in thirty three years, I am now without a bike. After three decades of owning and riding a motorcycle, … Continue reading →

Daybreak – Chapter 1 Anders Westerlund flipped over a packet of cucumber seeds and read out loud, “Plant after all danger of frost has passed.” Even in April, daybreak in Danemark was a chilly affair. Jensen kept insisting that the … Continue reading →

It was like 2007 all over again. Not wanting to deal with “big city” traffic, congestion and parking hassles, we drove through Inverness as quickly as possible and retreated to the Scottish countryside, this time, on a farm high in … Continue reading →

Despite the good intentions of matchmaking friends, family and neighbors, Rachel Springer, a tough Washington, D.C. lawyer, has spent a lifetime protecting her heart from the dangerous possibilities of love. When she finds a ragged stray dog on the streets of Georgetown and brings him home with her, she starts a sequence of startling events that lead her down a path she’s never explored. Along the way, she rents her downstairs apartment to a bachelor whose 5-year-old grandson has the same effect on her as the homeless dog. Rachel’s expanded life in Washington takes several unexpected turns as she juggles the dramas of divorces and molestation charges; a midnight drunk on her front porch; a health crisis that threatens to disrupt her law firm; and a weekend tragedy that turns her world upside down. All it takes to fully open the door to Rachel’s heart is the disappearance of the dog that started it all.

Mini Interview with Leigh Somerville, Author of IT ALL STARTED WITH A DOG

Second Wind: What inspired you to write this particular story?

Leigh Somerville: I was inspired by Jan Karon’s characters and the way they made me feel. As I read, I began to develop friendships with them and enjoyed spending time with them. In response, I started to work with my own character, Rachel Springer, growing her into someone I liked and then watching her friends and community develop around her, each with their own stories.